History of English: An Historical Example Language Change History of English: An Historical Example

English History Overview 5000 BC – Proto-Indo-European (PIE), Indo-European 1000 BC – Celts settle British Isles 0-400 AD – Roman Empire 450 – 1100 – Old English 499-550 AD – Germanic tribes defeat Celts: English ancestors (Angle/Saxon/Jutes) spoke different dialects of Low German & some borrowings from Latin (defeat of King Arthur, a Romanized Celt) ca. 600 AD – England converted to Christianity: Latin influence 750 AD – Beowulf, one of earliest extant texts ca 850-901 – Alfred the Great (Norse influence: they, their, them, are, 3rd singular /-s/, steak, die, loan….)

Beowulf The image above contains the first line and half of Beowulf from the first leaf of the manuscript: HWÆT WE GARDE na in gear dagum þeod cyninga “What! We Spear-Danes in yore-days tribe-kings’…” Because there were sounds in Old English (600-1100 AD) that were not thought to be represented by the Roman alphabet, Old English used runic characters for those sounds. The runes were "asc" (pronounced "ash") (æ), "eth" (ð), "thorn" (þ), and "wen" (looks similar to a "p" but with a smaller curved bow).

English History (con’t) 1066 AD – Norman Conquest: French influence 1200 AD – Normandy and England are separated 13th-14th c. – Growing sense of Englishness 1340-1450 – Chaucer 1450-1700 – Early Modern English 1476 – First English book printed 1564-1616 – Shakespeare (Greek and Latin borrowings) 16th-19th c. – Imperialism (Swahili, Hindi, Tamil, Chinese, etc. via the colonies) 1700-Present – Modern English

Linguistic Chronology of English Prehistory Dates Important events Literature/lang. Proto-European to Germanic Pre-500 AD Celts – Romans – Germanic (Anglo/Saxon/Jutes) – Anglo/Saxon Grimm’s Law: First Germanic Consonant Shift OLD ENGLISH 600 – 1100 AD Conversion of Anglo-Saxons to Christianity Latin alphabet Norman Conquest (1066) Beowulf Loss of /x/, gain //, allophones become phones, lose of case endings, more rigid word order MIDDLE 1100 – 1500 AD Printing introduced to English by William Caxton (1475) Chaucer Initial consonant clusters simplified Great Vowel Shift in stressed syllables Final vowel deletion [] in unstressed syllables Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) King James Bible (1611) 1st English Dictionary (1603) MODERN Early and Late 1700  present English Renaissance English Grammar (based on Latin model) Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary (1755) Webster’s (American) (1828) Oxford English Dictionary (12-volume)

Sound familiar? house, mouse, louse, out Old English: Modern English: [ū]: [hūs], [mūs], [lūs], [ūt] Modern English: [aw]: [haws], [maws], [laws], [awt] Virginia dialect (US) sounds like more like Old English than Modern English

The Regularity of Sound Change Gradual Every instance of the sound in question will eventually undergo the change, not in just one or two words only. Eventually affecting all speakers of the language

Grimm’s Law (or the First Germanic Consonant Shift) 1785-1863 Aspirated voiced stops in Proto-IE became unaspirated in Proto-Germanic: *bh, dh, gh become *b, d, g Unaspirated voiced stops in Proto-IE became voiceless in Proto-Germanic; b, d, g  become p, t, k Voiceless stops in Proto-IE became voiceless fricatives in Proto-Germanic. p, t, k  become f, þ, h Demonstration Web Link

Grimm’s Law at Work…

Practice Sanskrit pitar bhinádmi bhrátar Greek pater pheídomai phráter Explain how the following sets of words do or do not illustrate Grimm’s Law (note: do not consider only initial consonants). Sanskrit pitar bhinádmi bhrátar Greek pater pheídomai phráter Latin findō frāter English father bite brother

More Changes… Old English to Middle English Loss of /x/ and //(voiceless velar fricative) Spelled –ht (brought, night) Sounded like German ich Allophonic variants became phonemes: ‘wife’ and ‘wives’ – [v] was allophone of [f] [f]/[v]: safe [sef] and save [sev] Also: [s]/[z], []/[], []/[] Loss of inflectional endings, resulting in more rigid word order. Residuals: /-s/, /-th/, /-ende/ (later became /-ing/)

More Changes… Middle English Simplification of some initial consonant sequences: [kn] became [n] (knee) ]hl] became [l] (hlaf to loaf) [hr] became [r] (hring to ring) [wr] became [r] (wrong) Vowel deletion in unstressed final syllables name [ne•], laughed [•] became [], []

Great Vowel Shift Middle English to Early Modern English Affected seven long vowels and diphthongs in stressed syllables. From: [Saw it is team to say the shows on the sarm fate noo.] To: So it is time to see the shoes on the same feet now. However, spelling often did not change! [] = [team] name [] became []

Great Vowel Shift (cont’d)

The Way We Were…. The Lord’s Prayer in Old English Form Fæder ure þu þe eart on heofonum, Si þin nama gehalgod. to becume þin rice, gewurþe ðin willa, on eorðan swa swa on heofonum. urne gedæghwamlican hlaf syle us todæg, and forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgyfað urum gyltendum. and ne gelæd þu us on costnunge, ac alys us of yfele. soþlice. Old English version of the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), as given in the West Saxon Gospels

The Way We Are… English Today